Wednesday, November 12, 2008

:::A few words about Presidential Inauguration Tickets:::


Alright, alright. Calm down. Everybody who saw the post title and got excited thinking I had a congressional hook-up...fall back. I just wanted to rant a little about this situation that had me perplexed. After completing a long day of canvasing the Monday before the election and working the polls on election day, I found it hard to believe that tickets to the 56th Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies on January 20th were not only for sale but were starting at $895 a piece!!! I was about to go on a serious tirade. How could a government charge such exorbitant prices for tickets to a public ceremony for a political figure whose salary we pay with our tax dollars?! However, one of my more politically astute cohorts calmed me down and hipped me to the facts: INAUGURATION TICKETS ARE FREE! Even though only 250,000 tickets are released to members of the senate, house, and other government offices, they are NOT FOR SALE! Anyone who didn't request tickets before election night may not stand a chance in hell of getting one now, but you can always press your luck and contact your congressman or senator to be placed on a waiting list for tickets. I'm sure many of you are scratching your heads trying to figure out exactly who represents you in either part of our bi-cameral system. Be easy, I got you: House of Representatives and Senate. Just follow the instructions in the upper right hand corner of the Senate page and the upper left hand corner of the House of Representatives page to find your respective political representation. Remember: each state has two senators and the number of congressmen are proportionate to your state's population, so you may have to make several calls. Most of their offices, however, have a website which includes a ticket request function to make it easier on everybody.

So the next time you Google inauguration tix and the results give you a bunch of sites selling tickets for the price of a mortgage payment, give 'em the gas face! For more info on the inauguration ceremony, tickets, and the affiliated events, go here. For press releases regarding ticket release, go here or here.

P.S. For all my folks with enough paper to make Donald Trump blush, check Ebay come the first two weeks of January.

1 comment: